A nice early-afternoon sun.

BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
Some might post their sunrises or sunsets here. Where does a mid-day sun photo fit in all of these categories? ;)

Sunny Day 2022-02-06a.jpg

I used 150mm glass solar filter over my Sigma 150-600mm C lens. The previews in Live View were not that good, the final photos actually were dimmer and needed to have the exposure increased. Then I slid the white balance way to the right for a yellow sun instead of blueish-white.

I bought the filter 2 years ago at the same time I bought a nighttime light pollution filter. Had in mind to use this for the solar eclipse coming in 2024. Decided to break the seal on it and at least learn what settings I should be using on camera.
 
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Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
Oh, yeah the solar eclipese of 2024 that is will be almost directly over the house I moved from in Texas. I decided we moved just because of that.:mad:

Very cool solar image.
There was time I wanted to get a solar telescope but couldn't justify the cost.
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
14 months later and I finally take another try at this. Yes I'm experimenting to see how I expose this for the April 8 2024 eclipse. This time I really tried to dial in the focus with LiveView by zooming in on the few sunspots visible that day.
Sun 2023-04-06C.jpg
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
Good job. I would recommend bracketing the shot. Since you are set up on a tripod and the subject won't be flying away, why not just put your Z5 in auto bracket and take a series. You might find that a different setting gives you different results. I would even try an HDR merge to see what happens.
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
Clovishound said:
Good job. I would recommend bracketing the shot. Since you are set up on a tripod and the subject won't be flying away, why not just put your Z5 in auto bracket and take a series. You might find that a different setting gives you different results. I would even try an HDR merge to see what happens.
Click to expand...
I did all of that Clovis. Been a bit lazy getting around to trying a stacked exposure. But I shot a big series moving the shutter speed around so I could investigate later what works well. The original for this was less exposed and I put a lot of post-processing effort in to bringing some surface detail out. I hope it's detail, at ISO 100 the noise level should be minor.
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
blackstar said:
Strangely, there is no info on ISO in Exif.
Click to expand...
I thought this was after I changed from ISO 50 to 100 about half-way. Apparently it was about 2 shots before the change. I do not know why the ISO won't show in the exif plugins. I was basically looking for a fairly sharp image that started out dimmer.
RawTherapee screenshot 4-15-23.jpg
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
After watching several eclipse tutorial videos lately, I had a rethink of my photography plan. I will have one camera with wide-angle lens on a fixed tripod, and the main camera with my Sigma 150-600mm lens on my heavy tripod with star-tracker mount. I can use the intervalometer with each setup and I can reduce my workload a lot. I just have to shut off the intervalometer on each camera just before the total phase and remove the solar filter. Then just take some bracketed shots on each camera. Put filters back on just after totality, and start the original intervalometer program again.

My glass solar filter and square filter holder was bought for a particular lens: Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art. I will use that for the fixed tripod set now. That means I needed another good filter for the 150-600mm, which I bought last weekend. It arrived yesterday, and today I have sunshine to test it.

DSC_2267.jpg


Same brand and filtration, just in a 95mm screw-on form. It will make the filter removal a lot easier in the field for both lenses this way. Exposure is identical for both. And yes, it took extra weight off the end of my long lens as well.
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
BF Hammer said:
After watching several eclipse tutorial videos lately, I had a rethink of my photography plan. I will have one camera with wide-angle lens on a fixed tripod, and the main camera with my Sigma 150-600mm lens on my heavy tripod with star-tracker mount. I can use the intervalometer with each setup and I can reduce my workload a lot. I just have to shut off the intervalometer on each camera just before the total phase and remove the solar filter. Then just take some bracketed shots on each camera. Put filters back on just after totality, and start the original intervalometer program again.

My glass solar filter and square filter holder was bought for a particular lens: Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art. I will use that for the fixed tripod set now. That means I needed another good filter for the 150-600mm, which I bought last weekend. It arrived yesterday, and today I have sunshine to test it.

View attachment 403347

Same brand and filtration, just in a 95mm screw-on form. It will make the filter removal a lot easier in the field for both lenses this way. Exposure is identical for both. And yes, it took extra weight off the end of my long lens as well.
Click to expand...
Looks like your sensor needs to be cleaned. Look at all of those spots. 😉 Cool image.
 
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